Congressman Ken Buck (R-CO) wants to add police officers to the list of people covered by federal hate crime legislation. Currently, federal hate crime laws only protect individuals based on status such as gender, sexual orientation, and race, among others.

The congressman's bill would add police officers to the list of those federally protected against assaults predicated solely on the officer's role as a police officer.

"There are more officers being targeted because of the fact that they’re police officers," said Buck.

He added, "It’s not meant to be derogatory in any way; it’s meant to say very unequivocally that it is absolutely wrong to target police officers simply because they area police officers. I’ve spent 25 years in law enforcement and 10 years as the District Attorney in Weld County. I’ve worked with a lot of great police officers and I want to make sure that when they go home to their families they area protected."

If passed, police officers would be the only profession to receive protected federal status.

-SUPPORTINGCOPS.ORG

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